Dinner and a Movie

Happy New Year

Sydney on the big night.

He LIVES!

This little Mac of mine now has a brand new brain; a clean slate, if you will.

He's come back from the shop, good as new; actually, just about the same as when he was new, 'cause he's got a replacement hard drive, which kind-of affords you that brand new notebook for school sort of feeling, crisp, clean digital reams unwrinkled, full of fresh promise... but all my old data is irretrievable from the former brain, which is very, very sad.

I'm trying not to think about it.

Safely Installed

September has flashed past. Indeed, either flashed past or in the pan, I'm not entirely sure which, but I'm here in Sydney now, with almost five weeks under my belt, in a bit of a daze, but very happy to call here home.

I don't think that anyone that knows me will be surprised, and the revelation wasn't so much of a discovery as a personal assurance, but I'm such a big city boy it's not funny. Wandering around the streets here on my first day, my skin pricked up, my eyes opened wide, and I smiled with more excitement than I've felt since Hong Kong.

There's a theme here.

New Zealand was charming, but I think that for me it's for visits, not living in; Auckland especially; but Sydney now, here's a city I can sink my teeth into.

I won't be leaving any time soon.

Plans Revisited

See, if I had been smart, I would have left Canada independently wealthy, and thus never have to work at all, and then I'd be able to write on most days; go and see music and theatre; adventure up the sides of mountains, and down into rivers and fjords. Ah, adventure.

Instead it's: no, no, restock the shelves, tell people what wine to buy; get up early....

That sort of thing. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying.

Next time: independently wealthy.

Everything I've Done, Up To A Point

I toil.

I fret.

I get nothing special done.

I fret.

I sadden.

I ponder.

Eureka!

I don't need to stay anywhere I don't want to, not when I'm a world traveler; not when I live in a place without a guaranteed future; not when what I'm about right now is discovery. (It's amazing what you get used to, the rhythms you live your life by.) I am like the wind, I blow across oceans; shores; surfaces of all descriptions.... Maybe not gravel.

I rejoice.

I give notice.

I plan escape.

I pack.


Seriously. Now you're all caught up.

Don't Watch Hitchcock

My lovely, zoological sister explained to me why the birds here (little birds, like sparrows) are so cheeky: they have no natural predators.

And they really are brazen. They fly into the coffee shops to forage. Actually, not just forage, demand. They bounce right up, cock their heads, and blink at you with tiny pebble eyes:

You! Big, clumsy thing! Gimme your muffin!

“I could squash you like a bug.”

Enough chit-chat! The muffin; I’d like it down here, so I may eat it.

They kind of scare me.